


This Message Is (Love)

by RDcantRead



Series: Fun in Space Oddity [1]
Category: David Bowie (Musician), Queen (Band)
Genre: Bowtay, Cuddling and Snuggling, Fluff, Friendship, Humor, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-07-27 12:00:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20045668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RDcantRead/pseuds/RDcantRead
Summary: Roger's acting strangely. He's missing scrabble nights at Freddie's, and lying about where he's going.What if he's addicted to drugs? What if he's depressed? What if he's in an abusive relationship?!Brian thinks that Freddie should calm down a little. Just a little.





	This Message Is (Love)

**Author's Note:**

> Title from "Calling All Girls" by Queen
> 
> Idea credited to the Dork Lovers Discord Server.

Lately, it wasn’t unusual to find Roger Taylor and David Bowie cuddling. It was normal. They were friends, and if they were particularly affectionate with each other, it didn’t matter. Roger cuddled with all of his bandmates, and nobody ever said anything.

It also wasn’t unusual for them to be alone together quite often, or to go out together. Or even just quietly whisper together at parties and gatherings. Their friendship had progressed enough that they could go out together, just the two of them.

And it wasn’t unusual for them to be together, making heart eyes at each other and being generally in love.

The first person to suspect that something was even slightly unusual was Freddie. As Roger’s self-titled Best Friend, he was typically the first person to recognise something different going on with Roger. He was acting differently, sneaking around more with the band, cancelling on their scrabble nights, lying to them more often. Freddie was worried. Of course, he was pissed off at first, who wouldn’t be, but as time progressed, he let go of his anger and was concerned for Roger’s well being.

What if Roger was addicted to drugs? What if he was depressed? What if he was in an abusive relationship? So many questions ran through Freddie’s mind as he pondered what to do about Roger. He eventually decided to take the easiest method. He decided to talk to him.

Of course, when he had finally decided on his course of action, he needed to decide whether or not to include the other band members in his intervention. On one hand, he didn’t want to crowd Roger and make him feel like they were confronting him (although they were). And on the other hand, Brian and John were Roger’s friends too, and keeping them out of the loop wasn’t something he really wanted to do.

In the end, he decided to bring Brian and John with him to Roger’s house when he planned to talk to him. The second stage of his plan complete, Freddie continued on to Phase Three, and had called Roger to set up a time to talk to him, just to make sure that he was at home when he and the others came to talk to him.

The second person to realise something might have been wrong was John. Although out of his bandmates he knew Roger the shortest amount of time, as the two youngest of the band, they were often closer together than the others, and his impressive observational skills didn’t make the realisation any more difficult.

It began with the him noticing Roger’s absentmindedness during recording sessions. He could often be found sitting (or laying) on the sofa in the studio, not paying attention to what the rest of them were doing, and often coming back to them with confusion.

Next was Roger cancelling plans, and though Freddie had also noticed this, he hadn’t noticed Roger’s sometimes fancy clothing, and dreamy look in his eyes. But John did. So while Freddie was frantically worrying about Roger, John knew that Roger was in love.

But he didn’t know who he was meeting with, he didn’t even know who it could be, he hadn’t noticed Roger being closer than usual to any girls.

So when he got Freddie’s call about confronting Roger on what was going on with him, he wasn’t really worried, but he did want answers, so he prepared for Freddie’s frantic energy, and Roger’s imminent confusion.

The third person to notice that something was going on with Roger, was Brian May. This wasn’t due to lack of friendship or a disregard for Roger, it was just that he noticed last. But just because he noticed last didn’t mean that he noticed the least.

He noticed Roger’s new cologne, he noticed his flushed face after being interrupted sometimes. He noticed his nervous energy before going out sometimes. He knew that Roger was in love.

He didn’t know who with, but he knew that it didn’t have to be a girl, Roger had been going home with guys during their Smile days. He didn’t feel the need to know anything before Roger was comfortable with telling them, and he knew that he would tell them eventually. (And even if he didn’t, that would be okay.)

So when Brian got the call to go over to Roger’s house and intervene, he was mostly fed up with Freddie, but also slightly amused. So he decided that it was about time for some humour in his life, and he agreed to go with Freddie and John to amuse himself.

It was a sunny afternoon when the three band members arrived at Roger’s house, one with a determined but frantic expression, another curious and slightly amused, and the last with humour written all over his face. The first one rang the doorbell.

The person to open the door wasn’t, in fact, Roger Taylor, it was David Bowie.

Brian’s face filled with amused realisation, then melted into a cheeky smirk, before quickly transitioning into an “innocent” façade.

John’s face, on the other hand, looked slightly confused at the sight of David Bowie in the doorway of his friend’s house, but he quickly disregarded his confusion. Roger and David were friends, and he assumed that Freddie hadn’t said what was going on, so it sort of made sense for him to be at Roger’s house.

Contrary to how he was feeling, Freddie immediately greeted David and gave him kisses on the cheek, inquiring about his well being and how he was holding up.

David quickly invited them in while continuing to chat to Freddie, and Brian amused himself, internally of course, by how oblivious the others were.

They came into the living room, and Roger was bringing in tea. He sat on the couch beside David, and David immediately put his arm around Roger, and Roger snuggled into David’s side.

“Well, darling, I don’t mean to alarm you, but…” at this, Freddie faltered, he had finally realised that Roger didn’t look unwell, he wasn’t having outbursts, nothing seemed to really be going on with him.

  
He continued speaking anyway, he’d come this far with purpose, he’s not going to stop now, “Are you taking drugs?” He blurted out tactlessly, “I mean extensively, or course, like an addiction, darling…” rambling endlessly, he failed to notice Roger’s shocked expression, that smoothly transitioned into laughter.

He gaped at Roger for a bit before noticing Brian and John’s laughter joining in with Roger and David’s giggling.

“I’m so sorry for laughing Fred,” a few giggles escaped Roger’s mouth, “But, why the hell do you think I’m on drugs?” His questioning tone was interspersed with stray chuckles.

David input his own into the conversation, “Well love, you do look like you’re on drugs.”

“Oi! I look amazing and you know it!” Roger pushed David playfully. For a few seconds they seemed engaged in pushing each other around on the sofa, before slowing to a stop. They seemed completely unaware of the others’ presence in the room for a second, before resuming their connection to the real world.

Freddie gradually noticed how weird it actually was for David Bowie to be participating in the conversation, although him and Roger seemed like partners in crime lately, especially considering the band’s break following the failure of their latest album, they weren’t ever as close as they were recently.

He also noticed how weird it was for Brian’s smug smirk to be directed at him in that moment. He didn’t think he did anything to deserve it?

Meanwhile, a slow realisation was overtaking John. He observed how there were no women’s shoes or coats in the entrance of Roger’s house, how Roger and David were acting, they were more than just friends, they acted towards each other like he and Veronica did.

He knew they became closer after recording “Under Pressure”, but he never would have thought that they were <strike>in love</strike> felt about each other like that. Hell, Roger had never seemed like anything other than straight!

Going through Brian’s mind at that same moment was a certain thought consisting of the words, “I”, “knew” and “it”. In that order.

“Freddie, I’m not taking drugs, well, not more than I did before, and I don’t know why you’d even think that?” Roger’s tone of voice had calmed to a more serious cadence, and his facial expression radiated bemused confusion, along with slight worry for his friend.

“Well, darling,” Freddie hesitated, lately he hadn’t really participated in serious conversations with his bandmates, and he didn’t know how to approach the topic gently, “You haven’t really been talking to us about your life, and what’s going on. You bail on scrabble more, and you don’t tell us anything. I…” at this, Freddie’s voice cracked, and Brian’s smug smile softened to a caring impression as he moved towards Freddie.

However, before he could even come close to him, he was intercepted by Roger, who threw himself onto Freddie, and began stroking his hair and gently shushing him, all while embracing him. Brian watched as Freddie put his arms around Roger, and they cuddled.

“I’m alright now darling, thank you,” Freddie’s sunshine smile made it’s first appearance of the day as Roger kissed him on the cheek.

Roger stayed in Freddie’s lap for another minute cuddling with him, before removing himself and going back to his original position beside David.

He thought for a moment before responding to Freddie’s speech, “I think I’ve been so busy with other things that I haven’t been making enough time to see you guys. And I…” He hesitated, he didn’t know if he was ready to let the others know, but it had affected his relationship with the others, “David and I are dating.” He averted his eyes, he didn’t want to see their reactions, “I haven’t been completely honest with you and I want to apologise-“

He didn’t get far before he was interrupted by David, “It isn’t something you have to apologise over Rog, and it’s fine if you don’t tell others who you want to date, it’s completely up to you.”

“David’s right Rog, you don’t have to apologise, and we understand why you haven’t told us until know,” John reinforced David’s remark.

“Oh Darling, you shouldn’t have to hide, especially not from me. Why, we could have been admiring men together all this time!”

Freddie’s dramatic exclamation forced a few laughs out of everyone there prompting a group hug from all of the members of Queen.


End file.
